


ladies and gentlemen, we are floating in space

by velificatio



Category: Inception (2010), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen, Infanticide, Suicide, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 15:19:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5631331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/velificatio/pseuds/velificatio
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nothing should ever be so picturesque. Be it in a dream or reality.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ladies and gentlemen, we are floating in space

Force was a cosmic energy Mal would describe as near spiritual. Flowing like a river through each galaxy and canvas of star systems. Through every living being. When she closed her eyes at night she witnessed supernovas and eclipses playing out behind her eyelids. Heard the tremor of an earthquake, the pulsating noise of a blaster being shot. She felt all her rage and wrath manifest itself through visions of planets her feet had yet to touch soil. 

And in the twilight hour, she felt her soul reaching out to another. As strong with the Force as she was, but standing as an antithesis to her. An enemy. A Jedi. 

He was seated on a rock, on the edge of a cliff, a rolling sprawl of grass and wildflowers laid out before her. Beyond that an ocean that seemed large enough to encompass the sky above. It was an admittedly beautiful splash of orange, pink and purple of an afternoon sunset. Everything about this dream was so serene, so pristine. It made Mal’s skin itch, beneath the cloak and leather she wore. A desire to gnaw and carve out the perfect edges of this subconscious space swelling inside of her.

Nothing should ever be so picturesque. Be it in a dream or reality. 

“I have padawans who fear to breathe your name, even in whispers.” He did not turn to face her as she approached, her black boots crushing wet grass and flowers underfoot. 

Mal drew back the hood of her cloak, letting her long braid fall free in the breeze. “Fresh meat?” She teased with a deceptive gentleness in her voice. “How sweet of you to let me know this.”

Saito made a soft noise, a hum. “You would not touch them,” He said with certainty. “They remain too young for you to spill their blood. I know this.”

Of course he would not forget what he’d saw in her mind. A mess of little pale, discolored limbs, twisted sheets, her hands clenched into fists. Taking breath, taking life from two people she’d once sworn to protect. Not as a Jedi, but as a mother. 

_ It was  _ **_his_ ** _ lies, his influence that made her distrust her own sense of reality. And she had made him suffer, she had made him pay. Had watched the fevered, green hue of her lightsaber tear him apart piece by piece. _

The warm sunlight lit the scar tissue spiraling up the left side of his neck, over part of his jaw and behind his ear. Not for the first time, Mal contemplated removing her gloves. She wanted to feel the texture of that burn scar underneath the fine points of her nails. 

How dangerous, this Jedi was, to stir such desires in her she’d thought long buried. His skin nearly glowed, the white fabric of his robes shifting idly with the wind. 

She inhaled and could feel the pulse of the Force flowing through him. So steady, so calm. But Mal had also felt it vibrate with anger, with a rage that would leave her breathless, passing fast as a heartbeat but she remembered and trembled.  _ Understood _ .

“And I know you,” Mal moved to stand in front of him, her lightsaber extended. “How you suffered for years as a labor slave to the Hutts. How they took your wife, how she took her own life.” The pressure of his energy grew tighter. Sweat beaded on Mal’s brow. She licked her lips. “How you were so consumed by guilt and grief you wanted to burn the entire planet to ashes with you rage. You shouldn’t have stopped with Derqua, you should have burned them all.”

_ Why hadn’t he? Why was he still so full of light? _

The tip of her lightsaber hovered over Saito’s shoulder but when he rose she lifted it to allow him space. Saito tilted his head, considering her. “A thousand deaths would not have brought me peace.” He said, his fingers caressed over the hilt of his lightsaber, but he did not draw it out. “Just as the death of what remained of your family has not brought you peace.”

Behind Mal, waves crashed ashore the beach. She clenched her fist, centering her rage she knew he must have felt. For his hand came up at the same moment she raised hers to propel him backwards with the Force. 

Mal dug her boots into the grass, a tremor running through her at the small shockwave their opposing energies made. They did not touch, they never touched in anyway other than this. Force against Force. Their hands inches apart, hers gloved, black like a void she wanted to pull him into. His bare, so vulnerable looking in their unconcealed humanity yet so much strength within those fingers. 

He would rip away all the power Mal had accumulated if she let him. She would not. No one could hurt her anymore, not in anyway that truly mattered.

_ Peace was a myth. There was only ever war and the periods of mounting tension and fraying nerves between each war.  _

“You lie,” She panted, her laugh a crackle. “I’ve felt the anger you try to will away. I’ve tasted it like blood in my mouth.”

Mal stumbled forward when Saito abruptly stepped to the side. She spun, swinging her lightsaber back. Green met blue. Their hands pushed the Force between them once more.

Saito’s smile was thin, a line drawn with a sharp tip. Not at all the smile of a Jedi. “But I, Darth Mal, I have felt your weariness and your hunger.”

“Oh,” Mal laughed again. “Yes, I am  _ starving _ -”

For heat, for chaos.  _ (For him)  _ For more.

All at once the current between them grew too strong, too powerful. Mal gasped as she was thrown back into the grass. She stared at the sky above him, no longer a picture of sunset but a starless night. It reminded her of Saito’s eyes. They were twin pools one was sure to sink into. Too rich, too deep.

“One day,” Mal promised, soft and sprawled out on the grass. “One day I will find where you’re hiding.”

Saito’s voice called to her from down on the beach, “Perhaps I will find where you’re running instead.”

Mal awoke before she could correct him. She wasn’t running at all, she was hunting. 

Through the window of her starcruiser a comet collided with an asteroid, scattering smaller fragments of rock throughout space. And inside her mouth, she could taste her own blood. 

“Soon,” She said into the shadows of her room. “Soon there will be no more distance between us.”


End file.
